Radiotelephones, such as cellular telephones, have become increasingly popular for both personal and commercial use. Radiotelephones have also become smaller to facilitate storage and portability. Consequently, space or "real estate" on circuit boards hosting electronic components within radiotelephones has become somewhat limited.
A lightguide within a radiotelephone may be utilized to illuminate a keypad of translucent keys via a light source internal to the radiotelephone. A lightguide may also be utilized to support a keypad and a liquid crystal display (LCD) for the radiotelephone. The lightguide may be placed directly on a circuit board hosting electronic components for generating and receiving telecommunications signals. As a result, a lightguide can occupy a significant amount of circuit board real estate. As a result, circuit board space beneath a lightguide may be generally unusable for hosting electronic components thereon. Furthermore, circuit board space beneath a lightguide may be unusable for vias because contact pads associated with the keypad of the radiotelephone are located on the circuit board.
The speaker and microphone of a radiotelephone are typically mounted within the front cover of the radiotelephone housing and are hard-wired to the circuit board. Reflective tape is typically placed on the back of a lightguide to reflect light from a light source into the LCD and keypad. Shielding of electromagnetic interference (EMI) generated within the radiotelephone is often achieved using a shield can soldered to the circuit board. In addition, the inside surface of the housing top cover may be coated with a conductive material to provide EMI shielding.
The number of components mounted to a radiotelephone top cover as well as the addition of conductive material for EMI shielding can complicate and increase the costs associated with radiotelephone assembly. Furthermore, mounting radiotelephone components to housing covers does not facilitate interchangeability of housing covers between various radiotelephone models.